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Nov 9, 2026
This week’s themeTosspot words This week’s words 
Death and the Miser, c. 1625
Art: Frans Francken II Prev. week’s theme Words to describe people Wordsmith Games
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargA miser, a scoundrel, a country bumpkin, an overactor, and someone invited merely to make up the numbers. An unpromising dinner party, perhaps, but a promising week of words. These words describe people, but they have something else in common: they are tosspot words, compounds formed from a verb followed by a noun that is its object. A pickpocket picks pockets. A repairman, however, does not repair a man -- unless you call your doctor a repairman. Better to call them a sawbones. Can you coin a tosspot word? Share it below or email us at words@wordsmith.org. As always, include your location (city, state). Before sending, give your coinage the pickpocket/repairman test. pinchfist
PRONUNCIATION:
(PINCH-fist)
MEANING:
noun: A miserly person.
ETYMOLOGY:
From pinch, from Old French pincier (to pinch) + fist, from Old English
fyst (fist). Earliest documented use: c. 1565.
NOTES:
A pinchfist squeezes a quarter so hard the eagle gasps for air.
You can’t take it with you, though he’s certainly going to try. English
has never been stingy with words for stinginess. Some pinchy tosspot
synonyms are pinchpenny
and pinchgut. Other tosspot
synonyms are skinflint and
clutchfist.
USAGE:
“He was an old pinchfist. It was rotten pay.” Julian Symons; The Players and the Game; William Collins & Sons; 1972. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers
of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and
triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of
this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other
corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill
one another, how fervent their hatreds. -Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer
(9 Nov 1934-1996)
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